Open Russia Liquidates Itself to Protect Activists, Seeks Registration of New Group

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 31 – By a more than two-to-one vote, a Riga conference of Open Russia, a movement started in 2016 by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and that the Russian authorities have declared “undesirable,” has voted to disband the current group in order to protect its activists from official persecution.

            At the same time, some members of the group have sought to register with the authorities possibly under a new name but without the links to Open Russia in the United Kingdom that Moscow objects to, a combination of actions that has left others uncertain about what comes next (interfax.ru/russia/656375 and ng.ru/politics/2019-03-31/1_7544_registration.html).

            Khodorkovsky himself suggested that the organization could either choose to enter into direct conflict with the authorities like some radical groups have or seek a compromise. He and others stressed that the path the group has chosen is intended to protect activists and does not constitute recognition by them of the legitimacy of what the Moscow authorities have done.

            While one can only respect that decision and the motivations behind it, this represents an extremely troubling development because it may serve as a model for future shut downs of groups the Kremlin doesn’t like, treating their members so badly that the group will decide to liquidate itself rather than have officials take that step.

            In that event, of course, Moscow propagandists can be counted on to claim that the authorities didn’t shutter the groups but rather the activists themselves made that choice. Unfortunately, that argument will be accepted uncritically by many both within Russia and beyond even though it is superficially plausible but in fact entirely wrong.